With 3:04 remaining in the fourth quarter on Monday night, and as they shockingly trailed the New York Knicks by seven points in Game Four of their second-round playoff series, the Boston Celtics saw their entire future change in an instant.
At that moment, while diving for a loose ball, their franchise superstar, three-time All-NBA first-teamer Jayson Tatum collapsed to the floor clutching the back of his right ankle and writhing in obvious pain.
As of midday on Tuesday Eastern Time, the Celtics had not issued any update or official statement on Tatum’s condition. But sports injury medical professionals online agreed that Tatum showed the symptoms of an Achilles tendon tear — a severe injury that typically requires a recovery period of between nine and 12 months.
If those experts are correct, even in an absolute best case scenario Tatum would not return to action until February, 2026, sometime around next season’s All-Star break. More likely, however, they said that the 27-year-old who led the Celtics to the NBA championship last season will miss all of the 2025-2026 campaign.
As soon as they had recovered from the shock of Tatum’s injury, and from their team falling being 3-1 in the best-of-seven series to the heavy underdog Knicks, Celtics fans and, undoubtedly, the organization’s front office as well, turned their attention to the Celtics’ future.
Celtics Salary Cap Would Force Breakup of Team
Even prior to Tatum’s injury, the Celtics’ high payroll and salary cap situation, combined with new ownership taking over the legendary franchise, appeared to make it a certainty that the current nucleus of star players would not be kept together past 2025.
Without their future Hall of Fame superstar, the Celtics can now go two ways. They can choose to go all-in again next year, retaining as many of their stars as they can, or trading players such as center Kristaps Porzingis and guard Derrick White for other, established but less costly stars.
Or, the option that seems more likely, the Celtics will enter a rebuilding phase, dealing away expensive, core players for draft assets. That way, Boston would likely spend the next few seasons as a mid-level team before their newly acquired young players mature around what they hope will be a fully healthy Tatum — and the Celtics will compete for championships again.
One move that the Celtics may consider involves the other half of the duo that has formed the nucleus of the Celtics since 2017 — Jaylen Brown. In 2016, the Celtics owned the third overall pick in the draft and used it to select Brown out of California.
Brown next season will enter the second year of his five-year, SuperMax contract that will pay him $53 million next season and $285.4 million total.
The following year, Boston controlled the No. 1 overall pick, but traded it to the Philadelphia ’76ers, moving down to third once again. They used that pick to select Tatum, after his first and only year at Duke.
Teaming for the first time, Tatum and Brown led that Celtics team to the Eastern Conference Finals where they gave Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers all they could handle, winning three of the first five games before finally falling in Game Seven.
One More Chance For Ainge to Help Celtics
The Celtics head of basketball operations who drafted both players was Danny Ainge, a former Celtic great himself. But in 2021, Ainge retired from the Celtics only to accept the same job, a few months later, with the Utah Jazz.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens took over the basketball operations division and soon pulled off a series of deals that built the Celtics’ 2024 championship roster. Now, however, Stevens is faced with the tough decision of whether to dismantle that team, or try to keep the Celtics in contention until Tatum gets healthy.
In Utah, Ainge immediately put the Jazz into what appears to be a prolonged rebuild. The team has failed to make the playoffs for three straight years and has been accused of “tanking” — creating a losing team on purpose in hopes of securing a top draft pick.
But if that was Ainge’s strategy, it backfired. Despite losing a jaw-dropping 65 games this season, which earned the Jazz the best odds of landing the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft lottery, they ended up with the No. 5 pick — the lowest they could have possibly received.
Draft Lottery Bust Means Ainge May Rethink Utah Plan
What does Utah do now? Continue the rebuild with the fifth and 21st picks in the 2025 draft? Or could Ainge look to his old team, Boston, in an effort to change course and build a contender right away?
Dealing those two picks to the Celtics and getting Brown in return would solve problems for both teams. Pairing Brown with one-time All-Star power forward Laurie Markkanen would give the Jazz a two-man combination to rival the Tatum-Brown pairing in Boston, making the Jazz an instant postseason contender.
Adding picks No. 5 and No. 21 to the 28th pick, which the Celtics already own, in this year’s draft would set the Celtics on a path to a relatively short rebuild that could have the 18-time champions out of the wilderness within a year or two of Tatum’s return.
Whether that trade idea could actually happen depends on decisions made by the two former colleagues, Ainge and Stevens, regarding the directions the envision for their respective teams in the immediate future.
